60-Year-Old Wheelbarrow Pusher Begins Secondary Education In Delta

A 60-year-old man, Mr. Adalabu Seribor, who is a Junior Secondary School II (JSS II) student at Izon College, Bomadi-Overside in Bomadi Local Government Area of Delta State, is currently the talk of

the town. Seribor, a wheelbarrow pusher popularly called Oyibo in the community, disclosed how he took the decision to go to school at old age, a development that had kept many people wondering
what he wanted to achieve in school at such an age.Speaking with Southern City News, Seribor said, “I am sixty years now and I decided to go to school at this age because I perpetually feel the pain of being an illiterate in this modern world where everything has to do with English and education.“My mother died during child birth when I was a little boy while my father was a hunter. I was bred by a grandmother after the death of my mother and later taken to a step-mother when my father remarried.“I went through pains and hardship at my tender age to adulthood. It would interest you to know that I was so tender at the time my mother died that I was crying for food while she lay dead.“I went through struggles all through my life history. I had the opportunity to go to school at my young age, when a relative who was a magistrate at Ekeremor in Bayelsa State took me to his house.“But because of early morning beatings due to my failure to greet him when rising from bed, I went back to my father. I had no opportunity to go to school since then, and continued in hard labour to survive in life, which I am still doing.”Narrating further how he took the decision to attend school at his current age, he said, “I realized that without education, one cannot do well in this present society. I also do not want a situation whereby someone else would interpret or write for me if eventually I am chosen to hold an office in my community.“I make a living by pushing wheelbarrow. After school hours, I go back home to look for work to do, which I have been doing for a living. I pay my school fees from there. I am determined to complete my education because of the pains in my heart.“I see that one cannot do well without education in this society. I do various menial jobs for a living. I pack dirt from gutters; I pack sand, clear grasses in people’s compounds and pack soak-away faeces in the dead of the night. I am a JSS II student and by the grace of God, I will finish from this school.”Seribor said he would proceed to Teachers’ Training College at the end of his secondary education in order to achieve his dream of becoming a teacher.“I want to teach and I advised young boys and girls wasting their time and years roaming the streetsto go to school. If I can go to school, then why are young people wasting themselves,” he queried.His class teacher, Mr. Edsemi Anesah, described Seribor as a committed and hardworking student.“My encouragement to him is that he should hold onto his determination. He is the oldest student in the school and I advise young people out there to emulate him,” Anesah added.